![]() 20th-century drawing of HMS Investigator.
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History | |
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Name | Fram |
Builder | Unknown, at Monkwearmouth, Sunderland[1] |
Launched | 1795[1] |
Fate | Sold 1798 |
Notes | Collier |
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Name | HMS Xenophon |
Acquired | 1798[2] |
Renamed | HMS Investigator (1801)[3] |
Fate | Sold 1810 |
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Name | Xenophon |
Acquired | 1810 by purchase |
Fate | Broken up about 1872[4] |
General characteristics [5] | |
Tons burthen | |
Length |
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Beam |
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Draught | 15 ft (4.6 m) |
Depth of hold |
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Propulsion | Sails |
Sail plan | Sloop |
Complement | 80 |
Armament |
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HMS Investigator was the mercantile Fram, launched in 1795, which the Royal Navy purchased in 1798 and renamed HMS Xenophon, and then in 1801 converted to a survey ship under the name HMS Investigator. In 1802, under the command of Matthew Flinders, she was the first ship to circumnavigate Australia. The Navy sold her in 1810 and she returned to mercantile service under the name Xenophon. She was probably broken up c.1872.
Fram was built in Sunderland as a collier. She operated off the north-east coast of England before the Royal Navy purchased her in 1798. Pitcher, of Northfield refitted her between 27 April and 24 May 1798. She then went to Deptford Dockyard on 6 August. The Navy armed her with 22 carronades to serve as an escort vessel, and renamed her HMS Xenophon.[5]
Commander George Sayer commissioned Xenophon as an armed ship for the North Sea. In 1799 he brought the Irish rebel James Napper Tandy and some of his associates as state prisoners from Hamburg to England.[8] Around February 1800 Sayer removed to HMS Inspector.
At the urging of the naturalist Sir Joseph Banks, the Admiralty decided to launch an expedition to map the Australian coastline, as well as further study the plant and animal life on the new colony. Attached to the expedition was the botanist Robert Brown, the botanical artist Ferdinand Bauer and the landscape artist William Westall. The Admiralty chose Xenophon for the expedition: her former mercantile role meant that she had a small draught and ample space for supplies, making her particularly suitable for a long exploratory voyage. On the other hand, she was in relatively poor condition, and could therefore be spared from service in the war against France.
The Navy had Xenophon fitted as a discovery ship at Sheerness between November 1800 and March 1801, and renamed her Investigator.[9] The refitting included making additional cabins for scientists and space on the deck for plant specimens.[1] The armament was reduced to two guns and eight carronades (six 12-pounder and two 18-pounder), providing additional storage space.[7]
On 19 January 1801, the Navy appointed Lieutenant Flinders commander of the Investigator, and he arrived to take command on 25 January. He would later write:
The Investigator was a north-country-built ship, of three-hundred and thirty-four tons; and, in form, nearly resembled the description of a vessel recommended by Captain Cook as best calculated for voyages of discovery. She had been purchased some years before into His Majesty's service; and having been newly coppered and repaired, was considered to be the best vessel which could, at that time, be spared for the projected voyage to Terra Australis.
— Matthew Flinders, Book I, Chapter I, A Voyage to Terra Australis
In 1804, Governor King of Sydney ordered a survey, which found that Investigator could be repaired and returned to service. The work involved cutting down the front deck and re-rigging the ship as a brig, to prepare her for another voyage. In 1804 she came under the command of Lieutenant John Houston for local service.[9] While she was at Sydney, Investigator helped raise Lady Barlow, which had sunk at her moorings in a storm on 16 October 1804.
On 23 May 1805 Commander William Kent sailed Investigator back to England,[9] carrying two of Flinder's botanists, Robert Brown and Ferdinand Bauer, and their collections. The ship endured several fierce storms en route but arrived safely at the Port of Liverpool.
In November 1805 Captain Kent was ordered to relocate Investigator to the Port of Plymouth. The voyage was a difficult one despite its brevity. A typhoid fever had come aboard while the ship was in port, incapacitating both lieutenants, the midshipman and one third of the crew. A further six crew members deserted in Liverpool before Investigator sailed. There was no ship's surgeon or medicine aboard, and Captain Kent observed that the provisions in Investigator's hold had long since turned "old and bad."[15]
Investigator was put to sea nonetheless, rounding the tip of Cornwall in heavy storms. A gale off The Lizard carried away most of her sails and rigging and part of the mainmast. Unwilling to risk further damage, Kent abandoned the voyage to Portsmouth and brought Investigator into Falmouth for repairs. Two of the crew died of disease before the ship was ready to return to sea. On 13 November, Kent wrote that a "more deplorable crazy vessel than the Investigator is perhaps not to be seen" in the Navy.[15]
The battered and disease-ridden Investigator arrived in Plymouth harbour on 21 November, where she was declared unseaworthy. On 22 December her crew were paid off and transferred to other vessels. In January 1806 the ship herself was removed from active service and placed in ordinary. Two years later she was reclassified as a prison hulk.[9] A decision was made to sell her for breaking up in 1810. One contemporaneous observer called her, a "noble, hard-working ship which did not deserve this fate".[16] However, she was sold in December to a merchant, George Baily for £1,253.[9]
Now in private ownership, Investigator was rebuilt as a commercial sailing vessel, brig or snow rigged and reverted to her former naval name Xenophon. She continued to sail extensively around the globe.
The table below details information from Lloyd's Register for several years. In all cases, the data is for Xenophon, launched in 1795 in Sunderland. She first shows up in Lloyd's register in 1817, in which year there are two other Xenophons, both launched in Massachusetts, all of roughly similar sizes, but the American ones are much younger. In no subsequent year in the table below is there a second Xenophon listed.
Year | Master | Owner | Homeport | Trade | Notes |
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1817[17] | W. Brass | R. Gardner | London – Bermuda Liverpool – Quebec |
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1820[18] | G. Barber | R. Gardner | Bristol – Quebec | ||
1830[19] | G. Barber | R. Gardner | London – Quebec | ||
1840[6] | G. Tate | Dobinson | N. Shields | Shields – America Bristol – Quebec |
Large repair 1839 |
1850 | Not listed in Lloyd's Register |
Her final voyage occurred in 1853, when she put into the Australian port of Geelong on 30 July with a cargo of timber and other goods.[20] Xenophon later continued on to Melbourne, where she was sold and was converted into a storage hulk. She was re-registered in Melbourne in 1861. A further change of ownership occurred in 1868 and the register was closed in 1872 with the comment "broken up".[4]